The new arrival

I appologise for being a little late with this post. I have been a bit lazy of late.

Last Monday, Spiderman and Petal produced a new granddaughter for us. She is such a tiny, precious little bundle that I will call her Dewdrop. They now have two daughters, Blossom and Dewdrop.

Well, in the grandfather stakes, the score is me 2, my siblings 0. It does make me feel a bit smug, even though it was nothing of my doing.

On the evening after the birth, Mother Superior and I, along with Muppet and Biggles, went to the hospital to see our new granddaughter and niece. Blossom was not around, so it gave us a chance to admire Dewdrop. As I held this day old baby in my arms, I felt an immediate bond with this tiny person. I am sure I will love her as much as I do Blossom, her sister.

Anyway, Mother Superior and I volunteered to look after Blossom overnight and the following day. We are both really fond of her, so we did not consider it to be an onerous task.

Blossom is a lovely child. She has a vibrant personality and a sharp sense of humour. She relates well to everyone and is obviously very intelligent. This is not surprising, because she has a large extended family that includes two sets of doting grandparents. She spends a lot of time with us, and we all stimulate her in our own way.

Like her father, Blossom is very inquisitive, and must always be closely watched so that she does not come to grief.

Anyway, back to our story. We were rather looking forward to a lie-in the follwing morning, but Blossom had other plans. She woke up at 5:30, and then demanded to know why Doglet, our dog, was still sleeping.  This was the pattern for the rest of the day. Mother Superior went to work that afternoon, leaving me with Blossom. When I dropped her off that afternoon, I was exhausted.

Interestingly enough, all of us were concerned how Blossom would react to the new sibling, so we bought presents for her – and she did really well. When I dropped Blossom off at the hospital that night, friends were visiting. It was quite strange to see everyone fussing around Blossom, and generally ignoring Dewdrop, who should have been the centre of attraction.

Being a second child myself, I felt a remarkable affinity to Dewdrop. I think we will get on well.

Mother Superior and food

As I have mentioned before, I am privileged to be married to a wonderful woman, who is gorgeous inside and out. We are both best buddies, and have been through a lot together. I would say, on the whole, that our marriage has been spectacularly successful. There is just one area where we are not compatible. I love eating, while Mother Superior is never hungry.

I know, I should be very grateful. Mother Superior’s disinterest in food has left her beautifully slim. Apart from her grey hair, which she disguises very well, she is much younger looking than her 52 years. It would, however, be nice to enjoy a meal with her.

When we went on our cruise earlier this year, I was overcome by the temptations at the breakfast buffet every morning, filling my plate with the delights it offered. Mother Superior had an apple and a small tub of yoghurt, and looked at my brimming plate with much displeasure and disappointment. My solution was to rather eat in the dining room where a reasonable size meal was brought to me. Mother Superior had the opposite problem. The dining room portions were too big for her, and she hates wastage – as do I. She won out, so I had to slide my plate down the buffet every morning and forgo the pleasure of having my food served to me.

The Mother Superior and I pride ourselves on being a good team, and we always do things together. Unfortunately, when I get hunger pangs, my pleas to break for lunch are largely ignored. When she does agree to stop for lunch, I head for the kitchen and she decides to quickly do something else, like hang out the washing. I invariably end up eating on my own, and she will grab a banana to eat quickly.

The worst for me is when we go shopping together. When we walk past eateries where ‘normal’ people are having lunch, she does not appear to notice my salivations. When I suggest that we should have lunch, she remarks that I am always thinking of my stomache. She just can’t get it into her head that people have to eat to sustain life.

Oh, how I would love to stop and have a Big Mac with her, but I am denied the pleasure. If she did relent, she would order a small salad, and watch me eat my hamburger with undisguised disgust.

I must admit that she is a good cook, and I love eating whatt she prepares. I just wish she wouldn’t make me feel so guilty about it.

After reading this post, Mother Superior told me that she was not pleased because it made her out to be an anorexic control freak. In fact, she keeps herself trim and healthy for me. The only reason that that she monitors my food intake is because she cares about me. I accept that completely.

Reality check

I have recently had two severe blows to my ego, which have made me have a reality check.

As I have mentioned in previous blogs, I work for a very good company that appears to really care about its staff. I also have an intelligent manager, who makes the correct decisions. The chances of me looking for other employment are very small.

I am lucky to work a four day week at a reasonable salary. Recently, someone advertised on the Austechwriters forum that they were looking for a Technical Writer to do a one-off user manual for a POS application. I had just bought a new car, so I thought it might be a good way of getting some extra funds without having Mother Superior work extra shifts. I emailed the person, explaining that I did have a day a week available to write the manual. He responded by asking for examples of my work. “Fair enough”, I thought, and duly sent him examples. He responded with – nothing. All I have received is silence. There was no email saying that he had found someone else – just nothing. I can only assume that he was not impressed with my work, and does not want to tell me that. I am a bit confused, because my present employer appears to be happy with what I do. Perhaps they just don’t know any better.

I console myself thinking that I would not want to work for someone who is so rude that he cannot respond to me – but there is still the worry that I have fallen short of expectations, and i am not really that good in my job. What if my present employer comes to the same realisation?

The second incident came when I got a call out of the blue from a recruiting agency. A big software company is desperately looking for technical writers, and would i consider coming over? As I have said, I dont have any plans to change jobs, but I was prepared to find out more about it. I accepted an invitation to discuss it over a cup of coffee. I met these two earnest young men in black suits, who took notes on everything I said. For a momemt, I felt like a wise sage dispensing advice to these men. If I cleared my throat, they both made a note about it. When we parted, they said that they were sure the employer would be keen on opening discussions with me. I left thinking that I would soon have a difficult decision to make. Frankly, I felt quite smug about it. Here I was, employed by a good company, and there was another good company apparently desperate to have my services. I had visions of them fighting over me.

Well, I have come down to earth with a huge bump. A few weeks later, I have heard absolutely nothing. I notice, however, that the recruiting agency is still vigorously advertising the position. I can accept it if there were a number of good applicants, and the employer had to make a choice but, by the looks of things, the employer would prefer to continue looking than to have my services. This is a tremendous blow to my self-esteem, and it has left me wondering what is wrong with me. The two earnest young men from the recruiting agency seemed to be impressed, but the employer has rejected me without even checking on me. Surely, my history of employment should mean something. My current employer appears to be satisfied with my services, so why wouldn’t they? My suspicion is that it has to do with my age. I am almost 56, and my current manager is in his late 30s. I have mentioned before that he is very intelligent, so the age gap is not a problem to him. Unfortunately, not all managers are that clever, and they would see employing a person who is much older and more experienced than them as a potential threat. They would probably envision me criticising their every move.

I should be pleased at the outcome. After all, I am happy with my current employer, and I have been saved from having to make a very difficult decision. Also, it appears that the new employer is very stupid, and there is nothing worse than working for an idiot. Unfortunately, there is still the niggling thought that I have been rejected. If I happen to lose my current job, what would be the chances of being employed again? I had better just make sure that I don’t lose it.